This has been out now long enough I will share my notes with my meeting with Doug,
STRONG ON SGCP!
SGCP Meeting Jan 11th with Doug Evans,
First off Doug looked well and in very good spirits, he had only just returned from Portugal and SL less than 36 hours from our meeting and he drove in a snow storm to meet with me. I will remember the meeting and will also remember it was a morning a Toronto Police officer lost his life in the line of duty, I always find it humbling when events like that bring me back into perspective why I live and invest the way I do.
I will start off with the Carbon Credit situation. John Semachko is looking after the procedures in going forward and things are going relatively well, one thing that has been a big learning issue is the system is young and even though large numbers are thrown around, do not expect big dollars quickly it will come in but as things are assessed and managed according to regulations and requirements. Bottom line no one knows how long it will take.
I asked Doug about the GGVF situation and our due diligence finding irregularities on GGVF’s statements and reports about SL1 and the bigger deal they had with the SL gov. When Doug had heard of it they contacted the minister of agriculture and were informed that GGVF was a 419, that is their classification for a SCAM, SGCP broke ties and we are clear of that situation and is a big reason why they are not making statements about numbers and time lines, until the paper work is completed and accepted they just don’t know how long it will take.
Education,
SGCP continues to sponsor several SL children in schooling, unlike our countries education is not free for everyone in SL they have to pay for it, so SGCP has children sponsored in Schools from low grades to high School and college, this has increased from my last visit of 4 post grad students and is showing a very strong relationship with the current and future generations of possible SGCP employee’s.
Agriculture,
Rice and Peanuts are harvested and they had a fairly good year, nothing stellar but a good return on Peanuts, Rice was better and 100% will go back into replanting for next year, they also supported local farmers with 1 bag of rice at no charge up front but a 1 ½ bag was to be returned when harvested, this has been accepted very well and will continue for next year as well. That’s a 50% return on the investment. Not too bad in my opinion regardless of how much it is in total.
Corn was harvested first year I believe, and things are to continue next year as well.
Now! Soragum! Doug informed me that the harvest on this crop was just freaking amazing! They are very excited about how this crop has done right from the start and Samuel has been working very hard to get the results they are now seeing, the return is not yet complete as they are harvesting right now but Doug said they took Ron the Dredge operator up to the farm area and when Doug told him he figured they had about 4-5 hundred Acres planted Ron looked at him and said try 2000 acres! I think Doug needs to have this double checked ? suffice it to say the farming and agriculture side is doing very well,
Last time we met I reported that Doug was looking for investment for the farming, that is still the case and he is talking with a couple of professional farm operations (PFO) the goal and they have the LAND for it, the President and the Agriculture minister have come out and met the entire SGCP framing staff and seen the work done and also discussed the future plans, There is support there but I will discuss the Political situation later, with investment from PFO the plan is to farm 200,000 acres.
Kiri Trees,
I asked Doug how this experiment has gone, he was very open in saying not very well, they had lost a lot of the seedlings due to a longer delivery time and he feels they were left on a dock somewhere and got heated, they lost a significant amount right off the top, then once planted they found out that the local insects really like the shoots, and they lost a fair amount to them, for the ones that took and the trees have grown it is very impressive and they can harvest seeds from them and grow them as well over time, again life throws at you a nice plan that only mother earth is going to set the timing. They can spend another $5000.00 and get more; Doug chuckled when he said that spending $5000 is pretty darn easy over there. Over all Samuel is very impressed with the Kiri Trees and is spending time learning about them to get more, if he gets the same results on the trees as he has on the Soragum then we should be in real good shape, again it takes 7-8 years for these trees to be ready for harvest and to be honest I feel the CC program might be at least half that long.
Equipment,
We all know that we have 4 dredges and one tractor,
Well we have one tractor and one loaner from the Gov. But Doug said the second tractor is more of a here is this tractor for you to use, it may need some maintenance, which means they spend more time getting it fixed to hand back to the Gov. To use elsewhere but that is the political game played.
3 Dredges are in the field and on the water now, the 4th has been having problems with the fuel carburetor as it is running way too much fuel but they expect to have it on the water end of Jan with the parts to fix it will be delivered shortly, there is a fifth dredge Doug said it is kind of like a JV but more a rental and they expect that to be operational as well end of Jan,
Now one of the manager’s who was looking for equipment for SGCP to use or purchase went to Ivory Coast and they have lost contact with him, Doug didn’t seem to be too worried as communication in SL is tough, but I could tell there is concern there. Let’s hope he gets home safely.
Lease agreements,
All lease’s are still in effect in all areas including Pampana, I will comment on Pampana later.
We have some of the richest lease areas along the Sewa down to the coast, Doug mentioned to me that in talking with the Paramount Chiefs along that area and some of the older men who survived the war they remember DeBeers using helicopters to hover over the river mouth dropping divers down to pull samples up, once one of these helicopters had to land on the beach and the locals seized it and instructed them not to return. The head waters have been reported as having a very large amount of Kimber light minerals in it so there is most certainly Diamonds there and lots of Gold. Doug explained to me that it is a constant struggle to make sure the employee’s understand they want the gold! And to keep it, they always get Diamond fever and SGCP is trying to retrain that desire but it will be a generational thing. Ron who is the Dredge specialist stayed over the holidays and from Doug’s comments has continued to remain in SL training and exploring the best places to use the equipment is very positive that the results this year are going to be very exciting. Time will tell by June my bet is there will be enough money in the SGCP coffers to completely fund for the next year’s growth.
Pampana,
As mentioned Prior, SGCP still holds the lease rights to Pampana, I believe and I could be off a little, there is still 20+ years left on the lease. When I met with Doug last we talked about Pampana in more to the corrupt and bulling of one of the leaders there and that was a reason why SGCP pulled out, it’s not the only reason. This area is quite far from the majority of the dredging and mining that SGCP is doing and to manage all the areas including this one at the same time is just too resource demanding now also it is very remote, there is no roads or cart paths to the lease area and all equipment and tool have to carried in by the workers, it is physically demanding and dangerous the path is only as wide as a human being, completely impassable in the rainy season, the logistics’ of mining that area along with all the other detractors just make it a future investment when the company can afford to move into that area build a road into that area and support the local’s further, Doug said there was no fear of losing the lease to another company our lease is solid and he has been working with the local Paramount chief and local leaders in other requirements, this area is an asset of future growth.
Two years ago when I met Doug for the first time he looked tired to me and had seemed a little frail, I had found out from a discussion with John Semachko that Doug had just had a bout with Malaria. This time Doug looked healthy strong and was very direct in his statements to me, I enjoyed our breakfast discussion together and some time I think it would be an experience to go over to SL with him.
Guys, I still feel this was a great find as I explained to Doug our first goal was the humanitarian side of SGCP that got us invested, I feel even stronger today that an investment such as this with all the right goals in place will make us feel a lot better about ourselves when we spend the profits made here as whatever we spend we will know the people who work for SGCP their families and all the supporting SL people who will benefit as we do, if not equally pretty dam close to it.
